The RAND Blog

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Parents: Why You Should Care About What Curriculum Materials Your Child Is Using This Year

K–12 students getting remote instruction this year may not receive the curriculum they need to master the academic standards they are expected to meet for their grade level. What can parents do to ensure their children are being exposed to standards-aligned, rigorous learning opportunities?

Julia H. Kaufman @juliahkaufman

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Counting the Costs: Improving Disaster Recovery Cost Estimation

Estimating the cost of disasters is a complex process. Disaster recovery is complicated even further during this new era of COVID-19, when extra precautions must be taken. How can we estimate costs quickly and reliably, thus improving the flow of dollars back into the community?

Kelly Klima @KellyKlima1, Ismael Arciniegas Rueda

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Laid Off More, Hired Less: Black Workers in the COVID-19 Recession

As the U.S. economy tries to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are adding workers to their teams, yet one group is being picked last: Black workers. Getting back into a job later could do lasting harm to millions of Black Americans' incomes and wealth accumulation for years.

Jhacova Williams

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North Korea Has Agreed to Denuclearization. Trump Could Try to Make It Happen

President Trump came into office determined to rein in the North Korean nuclear weapons program, but it has become quite clear that North Korea has no intention of giving it up. How might the United States bring North Korea into compliance with its denuclearization commitments?

Bruce W. Bennett @bwbennett, Soo Kim

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When It Comes to U.S. Health Systems—Diversity Matters

Health care systems are a powerful and relatively well-resourced stakeholder in the effort to eliminate inequities both among the health workforce and among patient populations. The deliberate practice of increasing diversity within the workplace may have the power to create significant, positive impacts on workplace culture and patient care.

Ryan E. Tsuchida, Sydney Fouche, et al.

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Taiwan’s KMT May Have a Serious '1992 Consensus' Problem

The 1992 Consensus is an agreement between the Kuomintang opposition party in Taiwan and mainland Chinese authorities on the existence of only “One China.” Maintaining the 1992 Consensus as the cornerstone of the Kuomintang's platform has not helped the party's cause, and more importantly, has probably done the opposite.

Derek Grossman @DerekJGrossman, Brandon Alexander Millan

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Health Care Price Transparency, COVID-19 Vaccinations, Gun Laws: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on what private health plans pay compared to what Medicare pays, when COVID-19's global spread really began, laws that could reduce firearm deaths, and more.

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It May Be Time to Rethink the Design of Jobs to Deliver Good Health for Workers

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the impact of poorly designed jobs on the health of workers was drawing attention. Now may be the time to fundamentally rethink the design of jobs so that they promote good health and lessen poor health and its costs.

Chris Warhurst, Christian Van Stolk

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Managing the Challenge of Workforce Presenteeism in the COVID-19 Crisis

Presenteeism occurs when people work when in suboptimal health. Both presenteeism and absenteeism are key influences on workplace productivity, but presenteeism is by far the most significant. It's vital that employers identify and deal with presenteeism, for the health of their people as well as that of the organization.

Christian Van Stolk, Michael Whitmore

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Ambiguity Has Its Uses

As China's thirst to resolve the Taiwan issue intensifies, the United States' halfhearted commitment to the island will become increasingly perilous: too weak to deter Chinese aggression but strong enough to drag the United States into a war. No U.S. approach to Taiwan will offer a perfect guarantee of peace. But the United States has many options short of the provocative, costly, and diplomatically risky step of an unconditional security pledge.

Michael J. Mazarr @MMazarr

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Could Time Be Up for TikTok?

Is it possible for ByteDance to maintain ownership in TikTok Global while ameliorating U.S. national security concerns? At the heart of any deal should be a highly technical agreement on data security issues—one that not only the two companies but the two governments might have to agree to.

Daniel Gonzales @gonzadan, Sarah Harting, et al.

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Georgia: From COVID-19 to a Critical Test of Democracy

Georgia has successfully dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak but now must meet the task of conducting free, fair, and transparent parliamentary elections on October 31 and dealing with the economic impacts of the pandemic.

Kenneth Yalowitz, John Tefft, et al.

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The American Jihad Was a Failure. For Those Who Joined, It Was a Path to Destruction

To keep the jihad going after 9/11, al Qaeda exhorted homegrown terrorists to take up arms in the United States. ISIS later made similar appeals. These calls to arms yielded some plots and a few attacks, but overall, the American jihad was a failure.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

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In the Middle East, Russia and China Expand Their Influence

While the United States is concerned primarily about a resurgent China's inroads in the Middle East, it is also nervous about the gambits of a revanchist Russia. As the United States decides when and how to contest China and Russia—in and beyond the Middle East—it will have to resist alarmism as vigorously as complacency.

Ali Wyne, Colin P. Clarke

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Wildfires, America's Wealth Gap, Screening for COVID-19 at Work: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the growing risk of wildfires, how Americans' incomes have grown (or not), workplace screenings for COVID-19 symptoms, and more.